Blogs
Weekly Update: Tamil Nadu solar market in peril
25 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
In Tamil Nadu (TN), the Solar Purchase Obligation (SPO) order, mandating HV power consumers to buy 3-6% of solar power, has been set aside by a TN appellate tribunal on technicalities. To that extent, the judgement is a temporary win for the consumer bodies TNECA and TNSMA. The cornerstone of the judgement is that there was poor coordination between the various state and...
National Solar Mission allocations showcase positive trends for solar in India
22 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
On 20th January 2014, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) opened bids for the allocation under batch one of phase two of the National Solar Mission (NSM). A total of 68 bids were received from 58 developers, covering 122 projects and having a cumulative capacity of 2,170 MW. Of this, 36 projects with a capacity of 700 MW opted to bid under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) part of the...
Weekly Update: As international solar manufacturing companies boom, India gets left behind
21 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
The year 2013 has been good for investors in solar companies listed on the US stock market. Manufacturers like SunPower, Yingli, Jinko, First Solar, ReneSola and Trina have all had a spectacular bull run with share values of companies like Trina more than tripling over the year. SolarCity, the rising star of distributed installations in the US, has seen a five-fold jump in stock price. All this...
Kerala’s rooftop programs – Lessons for other states
14 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
Media reports claim that Kerala’s ambitious rooftop plan to set up 10,000 off-grid solar power plants would be missing the deadline. However, based on our interaction with the officials, it seems that the program is likely to be completed well ahead of schedule as per the December 2014 deadline set by MNRE. As of now, around 6,000 plants have been commissioned and the rest are already in...
The market for solar irrigation pumps in India
14 January 2014 | Tobias Engelmeier
Solar irrigation pumps in India could be a very attractive market. They could replace diesel powered pumps in many parts of India’s agricultural heartlands, especially in the under-electrified Gangetic plains. They could even increase agricultural output by making more irrigation water available to farmers. However, at the moment, neither the products nor the distribution chains are anywhere...
Weekly Update: Kerala’s rooftop programs – Lessons for other states
11 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Media reports claim that Kerala’s ambitious rooftop plan to set up 10,000 off-grid solar power plants would be missing the deadline. However, based on our interaction with the officials, it seems that the program is likely to be completed well ahead of schedule as per the December 2014 deadline set by MNRE. As of now, around 6,000 plants have been commissioned and the rest are already in...
Weekly Update: How will financing of NSM projects work?
07 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Developers are in the process of finalizing their bids for National Solar Mission (NSM) projects. The use of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) mechanism for the first time, resulting in significantly different cash flow profiles, poses many interesting questions for developers. Financial structuring will play a very important role in determining bid outcomes. SECI has the right to claw back VGF in...
Tamil Nadu’s 10,000 solar rooftop policy: A winning proposition for residential consumers
06 January 2014 | Akhilesh Magal
The Government of Tamil Nadu released a new scheme called the 10,000 solar rooftop scheme for domestic consumers on 2nd December 2013 (click here to access the scheme, and here to access the corrigendum document). The...
Weekly Update: How will financing of NSM projects work?
04 January 2014 | Jasmeet Khurana
Developers are in the process of finalizing their bids for National Solar Mission (NSM) projects. The use of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) mechanism for the first time, resulting in significantly different cash flow profiles, poses many interesting questions for developers. Financial structuring will play a very important role in determining bid outcomes. As VGF is disbursed only after...
The transition of the Indian solar market from an incentive driven market to a parity driven market
02 January 2014 | BRIDGE TO INDIA
The January 2014 edition of BRIDGE TO INDIA’s quarterly publication, the India Solar Compass, has been released. The new edition focuses on the current state of the Indian solar market which is in transition from being an incentive driven market to a parity driven market. A gist of this edition of the Compass is given below. A positive implication of the transition is a possible shift from...
Weekly Update: Solar makes more sense than nuclear for India
31 December 2013 | Vinay Rustagi
Recent reports indicated that India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is in an uncomfortable situation as the cost of power from its new nuclear power projects appears to be too high (refer). It has been reported that the cost per unit at the 9,900 MW...
Renewables revolution – what should utilities do? Part 3: Survive and succeed
18 December 2013 | Tobias Engelmeier
Across the globe, renewables are entering into their second phase: no longer driven by subsidies or even climate concerns, they directly compete with existing fossil fuel based power. So far, few utilities have been able to manage even the first phase successfully. And they seem to be struggling to strategize the second. Why is that the case? Should they oppose or embrace renewables? This...
